A former Nike missile base in the hills of Chatsworth has become an unsanctioned playground for hikers, taggers and vandals, raising safety concerns among neighbors and triggering a Los Angeles Police Department internal investigation.

The former U.S. Army LA-88 Nike Missile Base on Oat Mountain is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, but the gates have been found unlocked or broken into after an onsite manager left the property nearly five years ago.

"Everybody knows that place is a lawless area," said rancher Wayne Fishback, a neighbor who has raised concerns about site security. "That's why there's so much vandalism and random people there throughout the day and night. It's really troubling for us who own property nearby."

The 5-acre site's main official use now is LAPD Bomb Squad and SWAT team training.

But the department has launched an internal investigation after a box containing roughly 400 sniper bullets was found in an unlocked cargo container at the site.

Fishback found the Federal Premium .308 rifle ammunition in December, entering the site after he saw the gates open and hikers wandering around.

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He tried to turn the bullets over to LAPD, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and even the Los Angeles County Fire Department, but Fishback said no one wanted to take them.

"First of all, live ammo hanging out around anywhere is never a good idea," said Charles Lee, a Port Hueneme resident who owns 50 acres near the site. "Then there are all these open bunkers and holes in the ground that's just a lawsuit waiting to happen."

LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing of the Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau said the department's policy is not to store weapons or ammunition at the site, only targets and other nonlethal equipment used for training scenarios.

But Downing added that since learning of Fishback's discovery from the Los Angeles Daily News, the department launched an internal investigation Jan. 24. He confirmed the bullets are LAPD property and is seeking the individuals who breached LAPD policy.

LAPD officials chose the old missile site because they believe the area is optimal for training due to its terrain and distance from residential neighborhoods. Its secluded location is some 3,000 feet above the San Fernando Valley floor.

"It's safe and away from everything with natural banks that capture our rounds," Downing said. "We've never had a problem there."

Base dates to 1956

The ruins of the Nike missile base sit among rolling green hills of the 2,326-acre Michael D. Antonovich Regional Park maintained by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

It originally opened in 1956 as one of 16 missile sites throughout Southern California known collectively as the "Ring of Steel." The missile base was the first in Los Angeles to house a Nike Hercules, a missile equipped with a nuclear warhead, according to the Nike Historical Society. The surface-to-air missile was designed to shoot down enemy bombers during the height of the Cold War.

For 18 years, the local base was bustling with more than 100 military personnel whose motto was: "If It Flies, It Dies."

Then during a period of government budget cuts, and after the Nike Hercules was included in a U.S.-Soviet Union arms-reduction treaty, nearly all Nike sites in the country were shut down by 1974.

The site was then acquired by the city of Los Angeles and leased to the California Conservation Corps until 1990 in exchange for maintenance of the property.

The corps ceased its operations in 1990 due to lack of funding and the property was abandoned because of earthquake and fire damage.

In 1999, the City Council voted to transfer the missile site property from the city Department of General Services to LAPD for Bomb Squad and SWAT training, Downing said.

General Services continues to have jurisdiction over the property while LAPD has "responsibility and control" of the missile site, according to city documents.

Los Angeles County and the MRCA share the road that leads to the former missile base, but authority spokeswoman Dash Stolarz said MRCA has nothing to do with the actual maintenance or security of the missile site-turned SWAT facility.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said that while deputies do occasional patrols in the area, the department is also not responsible for the site.

Because the site is essentially a city island at the top of Oat Mountain, LAPD officers don't regularly patrol it and rely on the fences, padlocks and no-trespassing signs to keep people out.

"This site is not an area intended for the public, whether it be hikers or sightseeing adventurers," Downing said.

Rob Hiller, a former Ventura County sheriff's deputy, was the live-in property manager from 1990 until 2008, when the Sesnon Fire destroyed the six-room military quarters where he was living.

Now Hiller shares the concerns of property owners and said in an email to Fishback that "there will be a incident up there where the unchecked vandals or gang bangers will kill someone or a fire will get started there by a transient" without the right supervision on site.

"For 18 years I stopped stupid things from happening," Hiller said.

Periodic patrols

Fishback believes marking it as a SWAT training site could help deter trespassers, but Downing said "we don't advertise it because we want to dissuade people from going up there." He added that there are other areas in the Angeles Forest LAPD uses for target practice that are also unmarked.

Between Christmas Day and Dec. 30, Fishback, a Simi Valley resident who owns 350 acres near the site, was able to easily walk onto the site four times - and he wasn't the only one wandering the grounds.

"The kids who were out here were fully prepared with their flashlights so they knew this was up here," Fishback said of the young group he encountered.

Then on Dec. 31, two people were arrested on suspicion of attempted grand theft, according to the LAPD.

The 24-year-old man and 48-year-old woman allegedly picked the lock on the gate, drove a Jeep down to the site and attempted to wench scrap metal from a bunker, said LAPD Capt. Kris E. Pitcher of the Devonshire Community Police Station.

The incident prompted several squad cars to rush to the site and a LAPD helicopter to circle the grounds. When officers arrived, they not only met the couple, but a group of hikers who just happened to come upon the site, Pitcher said.

Los Angeles Councilman Mitch Englander, whose district includes Chatsworth, said the recent activity at the Nike site has not reached "a level of concern because these are very isolated incidents."

"I wouldn't say this is any cause of alarm," Englander said. "And now this is way up on LAPD's radar."

To that end, Pitcher said LAPD officers are now periodically patrolling the area, even requesting air patrols to fly by, to ensure no more break-ins occur.

Fishback experienced the heightened security firsthand on Jan. 27 after leaving his ranch. He said he was told to lay on the ground by armed LAPD officers as they inspected his car.

"It's an intriguing site and the officers in that area know that," Pitcher said. "It hasn't received a lot of attention in the last few decades, but that's apparently changing."

Fishback emphasizes that he does not believe it's solely the LAPD's responsibility to make sure that the site is secured. He hopes state, county and city agencies can work together to better monitor the area.

"The whole area has become a patchwork of law enforcement jurisdictions and as such has become a no man's land," Fishback said. "Until one of them or all agencies establishes a real presence out there, the same kind of lawlessness will continue."